British bike marquee Triumph Motorcycles is all set to launch its range of bikes in India in November 2013. When launched, its models will go up against the likes of Harley-Davdson, Moto Guzzi, Ducati, Suzuki, BMW and Yamaha . The company will assemble its bikes in india, it will bring the bikes via the CKD-unit method to keep the costs low. That’s not the end of the story though, Triumph is pretty serious about the Indian market and its potential as a hub for affordable superbikes. Just like car manufacturers like Maruti-Suzuki, Hyundai, Nissan etc. have made India into a low-cost, fuel-efficient car export hub, Triumph wants to make India into a low-cost superbike manufacturing hub.
Triumph plans on investing heavily in emerging markets with India being one of them. The company’s Manesar facility will be playing host to the higher displacement motorcycles being assembled by 2015 whereas the bikes with lower cubic capacities will be manufactured at its Narsapura facility near Bangalore. The low cost bikes will come with a pretty decent amount of localisation which will ensure that the bikes cost less and so does the after sales services.
The company is of the opinion that the central and northern parts of the country are conducive to the high end bikes and Bangalore hits the sweet spot for the company’s manufacturing facility. The company will be targeting not only the likes of Harley Davidson in the cruiser segment, but also the sports bikes on sale in India from companies like BMW, Yamaha and Kawasaki to name a few as it also has high end superbikes in its portfolio.
The bikes expected to make it to the assembly line in the first phase are Bonneville, Street Triple 675, Daytona 675 and Speed Triple with the flagship bikes which include Rocket III, Storm and Tiger XC800 getting the CKD treatment by 2015. It is then that the company will also launch its sub 500cc motorcycles to take on the likes of KTM Duke 390, Kawasaki Ninja 250R and Honda CBR 300 R.
Stay tuned to Car Blog India for further updates.
